7th of Adun, year 991
On a rocky ground below a hill, about 50 bodies were scattered all over. Some were groaning and grunting as they tried to push their bodies away from sight. Some were screaming in pain with a few of them calling for their mamas. Most were just simply out cold.
On top of a huge three-meter tall pale brown rock sat a chinky-eyed pretty boy no older than 16. He was crouched over several pieces of coins that he had just finished counting.
"These bandits have a lot more money than an average merchant," Blink sighed.
He had counted 1,036 copper coins and 367 silver coins. These bandits had three times more money on them than any of the ones he had beaten up and looted in previous days.
It had only been twelve days since he left Kasgar, but he had already encountered eight groups of bandits.
The first group happened to attack a village where he stopped by to exchange a five-year old stag he had hunted for a few kilos of rice and some other provisions.
When the bandits reached the wide open space that served as the village center, they were surprised to see the villagers standing confidently behind a brown-robed teenager who looked more like a girl.
"Go back the way you came from and you may walk out of here in one piece!"
When Blink spoke his threat, the bandits all laughed in derision. His words were threatening, for sure. But the gentle, almost melodic voice sounded too kind to be taken seriously.
Blink was pissed at himself for never having learned to speak his threats properly. But he was more pissed at the bandits for daring to laugh in his face when there were barely twenty of them.
Ever since he started going on missions for the academy, bandits were nothing more than ants for Blink to trample on. In fact, Blink considered ants to be a lot more troublesome.
Blink was very much aware that the majority of bandits didn't have a strong martial arts foundation. They were either rejects of the Academy or belonged to that demography who should have been of age to be recruited into the Academy in the year 978. Master Tszarek decided not to recruit that year so he could focus on training the First Class1 while preparing them for teaching duties. When Master Tszarek recruited the Second Class in 983, these men were so disgruntled and many then turned into rogues who banded together to form their bandit gangs.
At first, these aspiring martial artists who turned into gangsters drooled at the chance of fighting against the "brownies" who were sent to deal with them. These "brownies" should have been their juniors had the Academy taken them in. They felt ecstatic at the opportunity to wash away many years of vexation for such utter disregard of their martial prowess.
But after blows had been exchanged, the bandits realized that even after years of honing their fighting skills through banditry, they could only eat dust on the ground against a pair of "brownies" who hadn't even grown a beard or a moustache. What was more humiliating was that they outnumbered those Academy brats by a lot.
Blink learned all about the bandits' resentment through those pre-fight trash talk that he had to endure listening to. His findings were confirmed further by the stories shared by his Academy brothers during their rest time.
Once in a while they did encounter bandits with a solid martial arts foundation. They usually turned out to be wayward or resentful children from noble families or clans. Still, when it came down to it, the best young martial artists from the biggest clans in Ragha would always lose out to the top junior disciples of the academy.
So, when this group of bandits who could do no better than rob a small farming village laughed to his face, Blink charged right at them and sent one flying with a kick to chest. The force of the kick toppled the two men behind him and the three of them rolled over in the dust.
Blink then shot a punch to another bandit's jaw as he stabilized himself into a horse stance. The man's head snapped towards the opposite shoulder, and he dropped face down to the ground. With just a slight shift in his stance, three more bandits were sent rolling to the ground with vicious palm strikes. They coughed out blood before they fainted under the effect of [Collapsing Mountain].
One bandit tried to draw his sword, but Blink kicked near his ankle sending the man's foot high in the air while the other lost contact with the ground. The man came down heavily on one side and fell on his left elbow. "My arm!" he screamed madly. "I've broken my arm!"
Blink skipped over the screaming man and struck the closest bandit with an upward palm strike to the nose with his left hand. He retracted his right hand to his hip and shot a palm strike to another man's temple. He finished the assault with a spinning [Hidden Dagger Fist] strike to the back of the head of a third bandit.
The first bandit plopped down with a bloody nose and thrashed about before abruptly dropping his limbs and losing consciousness. The second one swayed unsteadily then crashed on his knees and ate dust. The third guy wore a shocked expression as he slammed face down to the ground with a loud thud. His body shook violently for a few seconds before he passed out.
In just a few breaths, eleven bandits had gone down.
The remaining bandits realized they had just crossed someone they could not afford to offend. They hesitated between attacking and running away.
In their moment of hesitation, Blink struck out once more with his palm strikes bringing down four more of their number.
The remaining bandits didn't hesitate no more. They ran away as fast as they could.
However, one wasn't fast enough. Blink kicked his retreating butt and the bandit flew for over a meter and landed on his face before rolling a few times on the hard ground. There were cuts and abrasions all over his face such that his own mother was not likely to recognize him.
Blink commanded the men of the village, "Three of you, beat this one up to a pulp.
"The rest, follow me."
Blink and the villagers gave chase to the five remaining bandits. Being a running fanatic, Blink easily caught up to them.
Sensing that somebody was behind them, the bandits turned around and one of them was met with a fist right under his ear. He rolled on the ground and consequently tripped one of his companions. Having stumbled while running at a frantic pace, the two got messed pretty bad: contusions, abrasions, cuts, a twisted arm for one, and a sprained ankle for the other.
Blink threw the two bandits to the group of incoming villagers. He ordered them to beat the ruffians senseless. The group nodded gleefully and immediately mobbed the poor bandits.
Blink went back to chasing after the three remaining bandits. When he was around forty meters from them, he shouted out to call their attention. The moment they saw Blink, the bandits ran faster, which made Blink almost want to burst out laughing.
Seeing that they didn't even know how to run properly nor swing their arms (their arms were rather stiffly sticking to their sides), Blink was quite certain they'd either trip themselves all over or pass out of sheer exhaustion within two minutes.
Just as he predicted, one did pass out after barely a minute. When Blink passed him by, he was already fast asleep and didn't bother with him anymore. At any rate, he saw that some of the villagers were coming over.
Resuming his chase, another bandit collapsed in less than a minute. As the rogue was lying on the ground trying to catch his breath, Blink made sure to step hard on his solar plexus as he went after the last remaining thug.
He stuck close to the guy maintaining a distance of about ten meters. Blink could have easily closed the gap, but he wanted to toy with the poor bloke.
Feeling weighed down by the swinging of his sword from its strap, the bandit took off the strap from his shoulder and wrapped it around the sword scabbard. He was running much better afterwards, but still not well enough to lose his pursuer.
Blink shouted at the man and picked up the pace. The other guy turned around and showed a scared look on his face, but faced forward and tried to run faster. Blink repeated the ruse thrice more and the bandit fell for it each time.
Soon enough the bandit's feet started to strike the ground a little heavier, his stride also getting shorter and shorter. Furthermore, he was breathing through his mouth already.
Blink toyed with him one final time by running ahead of him.
The bandit tried to change direction, but his knees gave way and he stumbled sideways to the ground. He looked with desperation at Blink who was now walking towards him with a smirk on his face.
"Thirsty?" Blink asked.
Breathing hard through his mouth, the bandit could only nod his head.
"Didn't I tell you to turn back the way you came from and walk away in one piece?" Blink reminded the rogue. "Yet you thought that a mere twenty of you could deal with me.
"Or maybe you haven't heard about a certain brownie who had been cleaning towns and villages of bandits these past few months?"
The bandit trembled upon realizing who the young man in front of him turned out to be. "You're the Butt-Sticking Brownie?" he somehow managed to ask before resuming his labored breathing.
"I hate that name! But, yes, I am that guy. I stick bandits up their twats and if you're not careful, I'd stick that sword up yours instead."
With that Blink grabbed the man's sword along with its scabbard and strap. As the owner of the sword was leaning into it for support, he dropped to the ground face first. He struggled to a kneeling position then tried to tell Blink something very slowly through his ragged breathing.
"Can I…have some wa…water? I'm…dying…of…thirst. You…you can…have my…sword."
"A weapon for a drink of water?" Blink made it sound like such an incredulous idea although he knew just as well that a man dying of thirst would probably offer something much more valuable. Since he did need a few weapons to practice enchantment on, he thought it was a very good deal. "Alright, here." Blink handed the man his gourd.
As the man greedily drank until the last drop of water from Blink's gourd. The men of the village had arrived. Blink left the bandit to their care after getting back his gourd. He headed back to the village to get his purchase.
When he reached the village, Blink was stunned at the sight of the villagers stripping the bandits of their belongings. Some were even stripped naked as their clothes were of surprisingly good quality. But the most sought after item was coins. The villagers chattered happily about as they bragged at how much they got from this or that bandit.
He met a smaller group of bandits later that day and dispatched them without breaking a sweat. Following the example of the villagers, Blink looted them of their money.
Eventually, as he travelled further north, he encountered more bandits in groups of forty to seventy. He dispatched them all with his taming rod without using magic. Aside from looting the bandits of their money, he also took away their weapons and armor.
Blink didn't really care about their weapons nor their armor. They were mostly common types or slightly better. He needed them for his enchantment practice.
After botching the enchantment of the five daggers he bought in the first town along the way, he realized practicing enchantment on weapons would be financially unsustainable. It turned out the success rate of a beginner at enchantment was a lot more dismal than he had imagined. He initially thought that he could at least successfully enchant one or two of the daggers, and felt such was a reasonable expectation.
By far, Blink had tried enchantment on over a hundred weapons and about 60 armor pieces collected from bandits. Yet, he was only able to successfully enchant three weapons and two armor pieces.
The weapons were two daggers and a short sword which he was able to enchant with {Lesser Enhanced Damage}. The armor pieces were a bracer and a shin guard to which he had enchanted {Enhanced Durability}. Both enchantments were supposedly the easiest to master.
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1The First Class to which Garth belonged to were recruited by Master Tszarek in 973 and began their academy training in 974. Since the Second Class and Third Class were recruited five years apart, the second recruitment should have happened in 978.